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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim PC Performance discussion

Wallach

Member
Just switched over to the Steam beta for 1.4...

Back when I was playing this a lot (first few weeks of release), I was playing on High default w/o AA, just FXAA. Markath and Whiterun would be around 30-35 FPS at their worst spots.

At this point, Whiterun and Markath go no lower than 50 FPS on Ultra w/ 4xMSAA.

Fuck man, that is ridiculous.
 

sgi02

Banned
You are having so much stutter because renderahead was caching extra frames and your videocard simply doesn't have enough VRAM. It is hitting the VRAM limit (512 MB is less than half of the absolute minimum [1 GB] I'd recommend for Skyrim) and streaming from system RAM/hard drive.

It is absolutely nuts to be running a 2500k with such an old, inadequate videocard. It is like having a Porsche 911 and driving around on the shittiest, cheapest economy tires you can buy. :\


With renderahead set to driver default or "0" the game would stutter terribly. Setting it at "2" yielded a better experience but there was still stutter. Using the above fix sorted out the issue COMPLETELY. My prior system was a S939 Opteron 165 @ 2.3GHZ ( I put 70+ hours into Skyrim on this old bear). It was certainly long in the tooth, but with that being said there was no stutter whatsoever. The framerate wasn't always butter, but the game was always fluid.

Since upgrading to the 2500K. Skyrim has been the only game to give me any kind of issue. Crysis 1 / 2, Metro 2033, Hard Reset and all Valve games have ran without a hitch! I know the 4850 reached its zenith quite some time ago, but I cant believe how well it can still hold its own in modern day games. I'm only playing at 1600x1200 and couldn't care less about maxing out AA. Even with its limited framebuffer the 4850 still provides graphical fidelity that's better than a console at a solid 30+FPS. While ive been loving the new build, I cant wait to throw in some better GFX and really let this baby rip!
 

ShaunBRS

Member
Ok, anyone else tried the 1.4 beta patch? Holy banana, that performance increase! Getting 60FPS stable at the top of the stairs in Whiterun, used to get around 45.

I'm finally getting 60fps solid everywhere with the 1.4 patch too – a 25fps boost in some areas. Nice to have the game performing like this at last.
 

Complistic

Member
I deleted all the performance mods, and I'm getting almost a solid 60 fps everywhere and the places that were killing my performance before I'm getting like 50+. Just outstanding. It is buttery smooth.
 
If I only had Skyboost and SkyUI installed, what files do I need to get rid of for 1.4 beta to work, if any?

SkyUI will still work, right? I can't imagine going to vanilla.
 

MrOogieBoogie

BioShock Infinite is like playing some homeless guy's vivid imagination
Ummm... this patch is insane. Pretty much constant 60 fps on my end. I think it's a big enough deal to warrant its own thread. More people need to know about this.
 

Erethian

Member
If I only had Skyboost and SkyUI installed, what files do I need to get rid of for 1.4 beta to work, if any?

SkyUI will still work, right? I can't imagine going to vanilla.

Can get rid of Skyboost. SkyUI will still work, but the parts of it that require SKSE won't, because SKSE needs to be updated with every new patch and I assume the devs on that will just wait till the final 1.4 patch is released.
 

frozzted

Member
Can get rid of Skyboost. SkyUI will still work, but the parts of it that require SKSE won't, because SKSE needs to be updated with every new patch and I assume the devs on that will just wait till the final 1.4 patch is released.

In case anyone is curious, from skyrimnexus:

SkyUI will still run without skse. The only difference is the filter doesn't work and the magic visuals will be behind the menu instead of next to it.
 

Nekrono

Member
Holy fucking shit!! This patch is amazing!!!! I went to my usual benchmarking spot in Whiterun (overlooking the city) and on Vanilla Skyrim I would get 27 FPS, with the latest version of Skyboost I would go up to 42 and now with the beta patch I'm getting 60!!! lowest it went was 55.

I have a 2500k @3.3GHz.

Too bad ENB performance isn't well optimized yet but still with this performance boost it plays better now.

The only thing is that Script Dragon isn't compatible with this version so I can't run Skyrim Immersive HUD :(.
 

Unicorn

Member
I deleted all the performance mods, and I'm getting almost a solid 60 fps everywhere and the places that were killing my performance before I'm getting like 50+. Just outstanding. It is buttery smooth.

This is what I LOVE to hear. I stopped playing because of the framedrops later in my saves. Can't wait to load it up tomorrow night. Fuck yes.
 
installed the beta 1.4 and new skse. performance is considerably better but the game seems to be crashing more. I mean, more in the past two hours than in maybe the past 60 hours or so.
 
Have been on holiday for the last 5 weeks so I've been out of the Skyrim loop. I won't be playing it again properly until next week but I thought I would download the beta patch to see the increased performance. To be honest, it hasn't really done anything for me...plus it reset my ini settings :(
 

Wallach

Member
This is what I LOVE to hear. I stopped playing because of the framedrops later in my saves. Can't wait to load it up tomorrow night. Fuck yes.

Same on my end. I used to get 30-35 FPS on High defaults with only FXAA in spots like Whiterun (overlooking from Dragonsreach); on Ultra w/ shadows @ high, 4xMSAA that is 60 FPS now. Even Markath is 60 FPS except when looking in a couple very specific directions, where it's 50-55 FPS until you move the camera slightly.

So good. I'm diving right back into this game.
 

Jtrizzy

Member
So should I be using AA from Nvidia inspector, or should I check the fxaa box? When I click ultra it leaves fxaa unchecked, as well as the other advanced stuff. Should I change any of that? Feels like I have some performance to burn now with this new patch, the lowest I can get it is 51 when looking at the waterfall in Markarth from the left you can get a bunch of different stuff going to slow it down.
 
So should I be using AA from Nvidia inspector, or should I check the fxaa box? When I click ultra it leaves fxaa unchecked, as well as the other advanced stuff. Should I change any of that? Feels like I have some performance to burn now with this new patch, the lowest I can get it is 51 when looking at the waterfall in Markarth from the left you can get a bunch of different stuff going to slow it down.

Don't use FXAA unless you have a slow rig (you don't) or unless you like your textures being shat on by the vaseline monster.
 
So should I be using AA from Nvidia inspector, or should I check the fxaa box? When I click ultra it leaves fxaa unchecked, as well as the other advanced stuff. Should I change any of that? Feels like I have some performance to burn now with this new patch, the lowest I can get it is 51 when looking at the waterfall in Markarth from the left you can get a bunch of different stuff going to slow it down.

FXAA is junky, blurry crap. Use MSAA + supersampling transparency AA.
 

Grinchy

Banned
I beat this game after 85+ hours with literally 2 crashes. The 2 crashes came after using Skyboost, but they were like 10+ hours apart.

Now, it's almost time to mod the shit out of the game and get all the crashes everyone else has been bitching about all along!
 
Guess I am the odd one out, my performance is now worse than it was with sky boost.

My bad, steam mover wasn't moving the right folders across. Anyone else have any problems with steam mover doing this? It won't update skyrim until I move it back to it's original folder and now all it is doing is copying the files over but still using the files in the original folder to run the game i.e. on my HDD rather than SSD.
 

Dynamic3

Member
As you can see below on the rock where my crosshair is, I'm getting weird shadowing on surfaces where it looks like a shadow made by blinds. If I walk back far enough I can see the shadow slowly move away to one side. Any ideas?

For reference I have Aniso off in the settings, and enabled 16x in Nvidia control panel, as well as ambient occlusion.

TESV%202012-01-23%2020-49-31-53.bmp
 
Call me dense but I don't see this 1.4 beta option on Steam. Is it not out in the UK yet? Or am I just blind?
Edit: Nope, I was blind. Found it!
 
As you can see below on the rock where my crosshair is, I'm getting weird shadowing on surfaces where it looks like a shadow made by blinds. If I walk back far enough I can see the shadow slowly move away to one side. Any ideas?
I can't see your image, but I know what you're talking about. That is simply how the shadows look when being cast over surfaces at certain angles. The disappearing to one side is when you reach the first or second draw distance point. There is typically a higher res shadow close up, and a lower res one for a bit further away, depending on your settings. Everyone is getting this - both 'problems' can only be reduced (by increasing shadow resolution and distance), not removed.
 

Thrakier

Member
So, I have an i52500k and a 560TI @930mhz. I dived into vanilla Skyrim (without any updates) and at max settings with FXAA I'm in the high 30s.

The mouse lag is horrible though!!

So, please GAF, tell me what I need to do for optimised graphic/performance Skyrim. Thanks!! :)
 

goodfella

Member
So, I have an i52500k and a 560TI @930mhz. I dived into vanilla Skyrim (without any updates) and at max settings with FXAA I'm in the high 30s.

The mouse lag is horrible though!!

So, please GAF, tell me what I need to do for optimised graphic/performance Skyrim. Thanks!! :)

Turn shadows down to high for mostly 60fps.

Update to the beta patch for nearly constant 60fps.

Get used to the mouse lag.
 

Complistic

Member
I can't see your image, but I know what you're talking about. That is simply how the shadows look when being cast over surfaces at certain angles. The disappearing to one side is when you reach the first or second draw distance point. There is typically a higher res shadow close up, and a lower res one for a bit further away, depending on your settings. Everyone is getting this - both 'problems' can only be reduced (by increasing shadow resolution and distance), not removed.

I got around this by making my shadows jump instead of sliding into place. If you watch closely you can see them jump every 15 seconds or so but it's so much better than having them flicker every 5.
 

Zimbardo

Member
holy crap ...that beta patch is great. seems to be a solid 60fps/vsync'd all the time now ...Dragonsreach and other towns seem perfectly fine.

ultra settings too @ 1080p.
 

Glix

Member
Game is running great for me now as well

i5 2500k 3.3-3.7 oc'd to 4.5

MSi Twin Frozr III 6950

I put my GPU back to stock. It still has the extra shaders unlocked and is factory oc'd to 850mhz. I just couldn't justify the extra few fps, because I couldn't get the thing stable without pumping up the voltage...

and the game STILL runs and looks great. There are a few areas where it needs fog or someththing, as the draw distance is simply too long for the engine and some stuff shows up weird. (Big rectangles in the ocean, etc)
 
The beta patch is amazing. 55-60fps in the world, over 40fps looking down on Whiterun and minimum 35fps running around Solitude. It's like a new game. Killed FXAA and switched to AA+transparency AA, still runs the same.

C2D e7200@3.6ghz, GTX560@910mhz
 

LCfiner

Member
I would normally shy away from any Bethesda released marked beta but this one seems quite amazing from a performance standpoint. Looks like I can look forward to a 60 fps experience on ultra on my PC after installing this.
 
I got around this by making my shadows jump instead of sliding into place. If you watch closely you can see them jump every 15 seconds or so but it's so much better than having them flicker every 5.
That's not really the problem though. He's talking about how they look 'stepped', or 'like blinds' on certain surfaces. This happens all the time, not just during the repositioning. And he's also talking about how this stepping disappears if you stand far enough away. This is due to shadow draw distance.
 

Thrakier

Member
So I installed the HD Texture mod 1.3 but I don#t see any changes and the weapons still look like shit. I mean, really shitty. Like...2003 shitty. Is it supposed to look lie that?
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
So the beta patch improves performance, huh? Good deal. Installed a GTX580 in my machine and was disappointed to find the framerate to be almost exactly the same as it was with my 5870. Is it really that CPU limited or just unoptimized? Using an i7-930 as the CPU.
 

Glix

Member
That's not really the problem though. He's talking about how they look 'stepped', or 'like blinds' on certain surfaces. This happens all the time, not just during the repositioning. And he's also talking about how this stepping disappears if you stand far enough away. This is due to shadow draw distance.

I just think of the GT5 shadows....

and then I'm happy with the Skyrim shadows. In seriousness, they are very good, but yeah, they "shimmer" or "blinds" sometimes for sure.
 

Durante

Member
So the beta patch improves performance, huh? Good deal. Installed a GTX580 in my machine and was disappointed to find the framerate to be almost exactly the same as it was with my 5870. Is it really that CPU limited or just unoptimized? Using an i7-930 as the CPU.
It was that CPU limited prior to the latest patch (and without using TESVAL/Skyboost). The reason is that Bethesda thought it would be a good idea to compile the game without compiler optimizations.
 

chewydogg

Member
Downloaded the beta patch. How do I get rid of Skyboost now? Delete files from my Skyrim folder? I'm not sure which files belong to Skyboost...
 
I just think of the GT5 shadows....

and then I'm happy with the Skyrim shadows. In seriousness, they are very good, but yeah, they "shimmer" or "blinds" sometimes for sure.
Yeah the shadows in GT5 really ruin the image quality. Particularly in the slighty protruding areas of a car, for example the bit just above a rear licence plate, or the side mirror or door handle... it just flickers like mad because the res is so crap.

Hopefully a thing of the past next gen.
 

reektann

Member
The patch is night and day difference - absolutely smooth and it makes the game feel so much more responsive! Problem I'm having is after about 5 minutes the fps cuts in half and all the rocks etc start to glitch and dissapear/re-appear quickly making the fps fall to pieces.
 
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